Door mirror shells - removal

laurie18

Member
Sorry, new owner so this has probably been asked many times before. The lacquer is peeling on my door mirrors. I would like to remove the shells/housings and repaint them, without having to remove the mirror from the door. Is this possible?
Thanks
 
Are you painting them the body colour or perhaps black?

I am thinking about painting mine with that rubberised black paint... plasti dip I think it’s called?

I live in countryside with very narrow roads and branches and shrubs are scratching sides of my car... argh...
 
Finally got round to removing the mirrors, which went better than I expected. No issues with the driver's side but on the passenger side the ring that attaches to the clips on the back of the class has partially detached from the mechanism/mounting. I can't seem to see if this outer ring should just snap back into the fixed ring behind it, or will need repairing or replacing?

IMG_3967.JPGIMG_3966.JPG
 
Your passenger side mirror motor is broken, and needs replacing. The replacements are cheap enough on eBay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/221896241699
I bought a similar product last year after making a valiant effort to rebuild my driver's side motor ahead of the MOT. When they break they're definitely intended to be replaced. The outer ring you have is missing one end of the central white plastic piece, and that, rather than the detached rubber surround, is the main issue.
 
Mirror motor/actuator has arrived and I have stripped off the mirror shells but I can't see how the motor fits to the chassis? No obvious fixing holes, is it just push/snap fit?
 
Mirror motor/actuator has arrived and I have stripped off the mirror shells but I can't see how the motor fits to the chassis? No obvious fixing holes, is it just push/snap fit?
The existing motor is held in place with 3 T9 Torx bolts, one at the top and two at the bottom. The two lower bolts are visible in your photo, either side of the white plastic pivot.
 
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For me, the hardest part of this was getting the power cable unclipped. It's held in place with sprung plastic catches either side which become excessively stiff with age.
 
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Here's a photo I took of my original mirror motor with the fastening bolts ringed in red:

A2 Mirror motor fixings.jpg


I replaced my motor with the mirror shell in situ, which provided a stable base to work from. Fitting the new motor took less than 10 minutes.
 
Thanks steve_c, sort of obvious now. I was looking the brass inserts on the new unit and remembering the brass screw heads fitted unit, and thinking they were the same thing. Will save this job for when the repainted shells are re-fitted.
 
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